In September 2013, I wrote about a company called Wellz Zable. The company is based in London and sells carbon credits as an investment. The website is full of the usual nonsense that these companies put out about carbon credits. Like this, “A number of buyers are purchasing different types of credits under all of the trading mechanisms in order to spread risk across their portfolio.”
In the previous post, I looked at a possible link between Wellz Zable and Carbon Neutral Investments (which has now split into three companies, Opus Capital, Gemmax Solutions and CNI (UK) Ltd.).
One of the suggestions that there may be a link between the companies was that Wellz Zable’s website included links to two two Formula 1 racing teams, Sauber F1, and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1. Both bought carbon credits from Carbon Neutral Investments (now CNI (UK) Ltd).
Shortly after the post went live on REDD-Monitor, Wellz Zable’s website disappeared. All that remained was a “Server Error (500)” notice. An hour or so later the website reappeared, but the links to the Formula 1 racing teams had gone (see the screenshots here).
Six days later, I received the following email:
From: Admin [email protected]
Date: 12 September 2013 13:23
Subject: Slander
To: [email protected]
To whom it may concern,
I have noticed that you have placed a post on your forums questioning the authenticity of my company.
While I appreciate this may be an opinion, however as it posted on your forum in such a way that it greatly effects the image of my company I’d like to kindly request that you have this thread removed from your website.
Thread for your reference:
http://redd-monitor.org/2013/09/06/is-there-a-link-between-wellz-zable-and-carbon-neutral-investments/
Kindest regards,
Christopher Newell
Director
Wellz Zable Ltd
Tel: 02036976717
Two weeks later I received this email:
From: Admin [email protected]
Date: 30 September 2013 13:24
Subject: Slander
To: [email protected]
To whom it may concern,
I’ve now been forced to re visit this subject as its now greatly impacting my business. Your slanderous thread now appears in the top results on google when my firm is search.
Not only is the whole thread slander, it is also implying that we are a scam by linking us to a FSA warning.
Please kindly have this removed from your website within the next 48 hours, otherwise I will unfortunately be forced to take matters further and pursue legal action.
Link to thread – http://redd-monitor.org/2013/09/06/is-there-a-link-between-wellz-zable-and-carbon-neutral-investments/
Regards,
Christopher Newell
Director
Wellz Zable Ltd
Tel: 02036976717
Wellz Zable is also offering “exit strategies” for people who have bought carbon credits as investments and now find that they can’t sell them at any price. Of course, Wellz Zable asks for money upfront for this “service”. Having handed over the money, people receive an email from a company called ClearSet, signed by The ClearSet Team and Wellz Zable Limited.
Below that is some small print from Gemmax Solutions, explaining that investing in carbon credits is a really bad idea:
Gemmax only supplies VCS VER Spot Carbon Credits and these are not categorised as an “Investment Product” under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. They are therefore not a regulated product and any customers purchasing VCS VER Spot Carbon Credits for investment or corporate social responsibility purposes should be aware that neither the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) or the Financial Ombudsman Scheme (FOS) apply to the transaction or to any monies paid to Gemmax for the purchase of VCS VER Spot Carbon Credits. VCS VER Spot Carbon Credits are not tradable on the London Stock Exchange and customers should be aware there is little or no liquidity and it may not be possible to sell the VCS VER Spot Carbon Credits without suffering a loss of some or all of the capital invested.
ClearSet’s registered address is International House, 1-6 Yarmouth Place, Mayfair, London W1J 7BU. That’s the same address that Carbon Neutral Investments operated from. And the director of ClearSet, or Curzon Corporate Finance Limited as the company now seems to be called? Step forward, Paul Seakens, the director of Carbon Neutral Investments (before it split up), and currently the director of Opus Capital and Gemmax Solutions. Until December 2012 he was director of another company called Enviro Associates.
Earlier this week, Paul Murphy wrote a post on the Financial Times blog, FT Alphaville, about Enviro Associates, after received a copy of what he describes as “some scumbag correspondence” from Enviro Associates. In the email, Enviro Associates is offering its services to those unfortunate to have bought carbon credits as an investment.
“Is anyone regulating this crap?” asks Murphy, and answers, “We’re genuinely not sure.”
Like Wellz Zable, Enviro Associates is a “clearing member” of Gemmax Solutions. Murphy ends his post on FT Alphaville with a link to the Financial Conduct Authority’s warning about Gemmax Solutions:
Go get ’em Chris!
Keep up the good work
Not a terribly scary “cease and desist” letter, when dear old Wikipedia tells us at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation:
Some common law jurisdictions [and definitely the Law of England] also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.
So he can’t even get the purported deed’s name right.
Also doesn’t know the difference between “affect” and “effect”. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, this Christopher Marcel Newell. Wouldn’t trust him to fetch me the paper, let along with a penny of my money.
chuckle chuckle chuckle
I remember well when the whole Guyana govt was caught up in carbon credit euphoria until canopy capitol went belly up
but we still have some true believers
sell that carbon baby!
As some powerful financial institutions would like carbon to be the important currency – so that all of us have a carbon price on our heads which allows the powerful to still chop up the forests, pollute indigenous lands and continue with the planet trashing trajectory – your analysis of some of the carbon market Ponzi scheme players is very important. All the best Chris!
Hi. Thanks for the warning about Enviro Associates. I’ve had several Emails from them offering help with my Carbon Credits, I’ll delete then.
I also had a cold call from a David Banks of Dresden Investments (www.dresdeninvestments.com) he told me they were exit strategists and could sell my credits. I would need to open a Crest account and pay a fee before I got the money from the sale. Another Boiler Room scam? I wonder.
Ian
@Ian Marriott – Please don’t delete the emails from Enviro Associates. Instead forward them to Action Fraud, the Financial Conduct Authority and your MP along with an explanation of the scam, who sold you the carbon credits and why the sale of carbon credits needs to be regulated. Here’s a list of things you can do if you’ve been sold carbon credits as an investment.
And there’s more about Enviro Associates here:
More “scumbag correspondence” from Enviro Associates
Regarding Dresden Investments…
1. No reputable company would cold call you.
2. Ask yourself how they got your contact details.
3. Once you’ve been convinced to invest your money in carbon credits (or rare earth metals, coloured diamonds, land banking schemes, worthless shares, or whatever) you will be contacted by other firms offering an exit strategy – for a fee. This is the “Recovery Room” part of the scam.
On its website, Dresden Investments GmBH claims to be regulated and authorised by BaFIN (the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority).
But a search on BaFIN’s company database gives “Keine Ergebnisse” or no results, in English:
And the company is nowhere to be found if you scroll through the list of companies registered by BaFIN. Neither is there any record of Dresden Investments GmBH on Open Corporates:
So we don’t know when (or where, or if) the company was registered. But the website was registered in October 2012. It was registered anonymously using a firm in Panama – privatewhois.net. None of which is exactly reassuring, is it?
I was contacted by David Banks of Dresden Investments who said he was an exit strategist and could sell my carbon credits.
Mr Banks telephone numbers are 0845 1547530 and 020 719 3000.
After several telephone calls, he sent me an offer which required an account to be opened and significant cost to me by payments to an HSBC bank account in Hong Kong. The beneficiary company was established in 2007 and has never posted accounts.
Dresden are not properly listed.
Needless to say I have not sent them the money.
Hope this helps others.